TY - GEN
T1 - Mechatronics-driven musical expressivity for robotic percussionists
AU - Yang, Ning
AU - Savery, Richard
AU - Sankaranarayanan, Raghavasimhan
AU - Zahray, Lisa
AU - Weinberg, Gil
N1 - Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.
PY - 2020/6/1
Y1 - 2020/6/1
N2 - Musical expressivity is an important aspect of musical performance for humans as well as robotic musicians. We present a novel mechatronics-driven implementation of Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors in a robotic marimba player, named Shimon, designed to improve speed, dynamic range (loudness), and ultimately perceived musical expressivity in comparison to state-of-the-art robotic percussionist actuators. In an objective test of dynamic range, we find that our implementation provides wider and more consistent dynamic range response in comparison with solenoid-based robotic percussionists. Our implementation also outperforms both solenoid and human marimba players in striking speed. In a subjective listening test measuring musical expressivity, our system performs significantly better than a solenoid-based system and is statistically indistinguishable from human performers.
AB - Musical expressivity is an important aspect of musical performance for humans as well as robotic musicians. We present a novel mechatronics-driven implementation of Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) motors in a robotic marimba player, named Shimon, designed to improve speed, dynamic range (loudness), and ultimately perceived musical expressivity in comparison to state-of-the-art robotic percussionist actuators. In an objective test of dynamic range, we find that our implementation provides wider and more consistent dynamic range response in comparison with solenoid-based robotic percussionists. Our implementation also outperforms both solenoid and human marimba players in striking speed. In a subjective listening test measuring musical expressivity, our system performs significantly better than a solenoid-based system and is statistically indistinguishable from human performers.
KW - robotics
KW - mechatronics
KW - musical expressivity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125507198&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5281/zenodo.4813274
DO - 10.5281/zenodo.4813274
M3 - Conference proceeding contribution
T3 - International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME)
SP - 133
EP - 138
BT - Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME-20)
PB - New Interfaces for Musical Expression
CY - Birmingham, UK
T2 - International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (2020)
Y2 - 21 July 2020 through 25 July 2020
ER -